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Here’s how to find out what Google knows about you

Google thinks I’m a 35-44 year old man. Considering I’m a couple of days shy of a mid-twenties birthday, that’s slightly depressing.

Curious to know who Google thinks you are?

The seemingly all-knowing search engine — which announced its plan to share information across its search, Gmail and YouTube platforms this week — might know less about you than you think.

After exploring Google’s new privacy policy, technology reporter Sarah Kessler at Mashable discovered Google thought she was a middle-aged man based on her interests in business, computers and the Internet.

(Incidentally, Twitter has lit up with a flurry of women in the technology field reporting similar results.)

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To find out what the search giant thinks about you, log in to your Google account and view your ad preferences. Google uses cookies to track online behaviour. People can opt out of this or simply reset their information by deleting their browser’s cookies.

Based on the websites you visit, Google infers which demographics you fall under and advertises accordingly. Google Dashboard also shows users exactly what the search engine knows about them as part of Google’s effort to be transparent.

Online spending on advertising is expected to soar to $39.5 billion U.S. in 2012, according to research by eMarketer. For the first time, businesses will spend more on online ads than on advertising in magazines and newspapers.

Google’s decision to share information across its services will almost certainly make it easier for the search guru to guess who you are and target its advertising. YouTube, for example, requires users to fill out their age to prevent children from watching inappropriate videos.

Tailored search could make it faster to find something. For instance, if a person watches videos of the animal jaguar, a search will more likely show results for the cat rather than the car.

But the race to collect as much personal information as possible has sparked criticism from privacy advocates and the public. Both Facebook and Google have stepped into hot water with U.S. regulators for privacy violations. Earlier this year, Google’s integration of its social network Google+ into its search results raised the ire of consumers, Twitter and Facebook.

Instead of having 60 separate privacy policies, Google introduced a new privacy policy to go with its streamlined service. Users can either accept the change or stop using Google’s services when it comes into effect on March 1, according to the policy.

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